Recommendations based on "Discovering the Exeter Road"

Oxford, 1836.The city of dreaming spires.It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.Until it became a prison…But can a student stand against an empire?

Exiled to Jamaica after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Sir John Wedderburn made a fortune, alongside his three brothers, as a faux surgeon and sugar planter. In the 1770s, he returned to Scotland to marry and re-establish the family name. He brought with him Joseph Knight, a black slave and a token of his years in the Caribbean.Now, in 1802, Sir John Wedderburn is settling his estate, and has hired a solicitor's agent, Archibald Jamieson, to search for his former slave. The past has haunted Wedderburn ever since Culloden, and ever since he last saw Knight, in court twenty-four years ago, in a case that went to the heart of Scottish society, pitting master against slave, white against black, and rich against poor.As long as Knight is missing, Wedderburn will never be able to escape the past. Yet what will he do if Jamieson's search is successful? And what effect will this re-opening of old wounds have on those around him? Meanwhile, as Jamieson tries to unravel the true story of Joseph Knight he begins to question his own motivation. How can he possibly find a man who does not want to be found?James Robertson's second novel is a tour de force, the gripping story of a search for a life that stretches over sixty years and moves from battlefields to the plantations of Jamaica, from Enlightenment Edinburgh to the back streets of Dundee. It is a moving narrative of history, identity and ideas, that dramatically retells a fascinating but forgotten episode of Scottish history.

“Passion among the pyramids. Forged antiquities. A country at war. A camel in the garden. A cameo by Lawrence of Arabia. Add in Peters’s trademark intelligent plotting, engaging characters, and stylish writing and we can hardly ask for anything more.”—Cincinnati EnquirerOne of the most beloved characters in mystery/suspense fiction, archeologist and Egyptologist Amelia Peabody bravely faces gravest peril in Cairo on the eve of World War One in New York Times bestselling Grandmaster Elizabeth Peters’s magnificent Egyptian adventure, He Shall Thunder in the Sky. The San Francisco Examiner calls these heart-racing exploits of Amelia and her courageous family, the Emersons, “pure delight.” But perhaps the New York Times Book Review states it best: “Between Amelia Peabody and Indiana Jones, it’s Amelia—in wit and daring—by a landslide.”

And the Land Lay Still is the sweeping Scottish epic by James RobertsonAnd the Land Lay Still is nothing less than the story of a nation. James Robertson's breathtaking novel is a portrait of modern Scotland as seen through the eyes of natives and immigrants, journalists and politicians, drop-outs and spooks, all trying to make their way through a country in the throes of great and rapid change. It is a moving, sweeping story of family, friendship, struggle and hope - epic in every sense.The winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award 2010, And the Land Lay Still is a masterful insight into Scotland's history in the twentieth century and a moving, beautifully written novel of intertwined stories.'Toweringly ambitious, virtually flawlessly realized, a masterpiece and, without a doubt, my book of the year' Daily Mail'A jam-packed, dizzying piece of fiction' Scotland on Sunday'Gripping, vivid, beautifully realized' The Times'Engrossing' Daily Telegraph'Powerful and moving. A brilliant and multifaceted saga of Scottish life in the second half of the twentieth century' Sunday Times'Brilliant and thoughtful. Eminently readable, subtle and profound' Independent on Sunday'Bold, discursive and deep, Robertson's sweeping history of life and politics in 20th-century Scotland should not be ignored' Ian Rankin, Observer Books of the YearJames Robertson is the author of three previous novels: The Fanatic, Joseph Knight and The Testament of Gideon Mack, which is available in Penguin. Joseph Knight was awarded the two major Scottish literary awards in 2003/4 - the Saltire Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year - and The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, picked by Richard and Judy's Book Club, and shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year award.

The Seventh Scroll, an ancient papyrus written by the slave Taita, holds the secret to the location of the Pharaoh's hidden tomb and his staggering untold wealth. Untouched for thousands of years, the scroll is accidentally discovered and instantly becomes something people will kill to obtain. In a race against an unknown enemy, Royan Al Simma, a beautiful Egyptologist who has deciphered the scrolls, and Nicholas Quentin-Harper, an English adventurer who risks his fortune, search the Ethiopian highlands for the whereabouts of the Pharaoh's treasure. As they close in on the tomb, the brilliant Taita's ancient traps become deadly while their enemy brings his ruthlessness and power to bear.

When Henry Warren, director of an English bank, lands by chance in a hospital in a bleak Northern town that has been ruined by the closure of its shipyard, he discovers nothing less than a new purpose for his life. Moved by the fate of the town’s inhabitants, Warren risks his fortune and reputation to save the shipyard and restore the town to its former prosperity. In seeking to change the fate of the town, he radically changes his own.

The first volume of the REGENERATION trilogy which centres around an actual encounter between army psychologist W.H.R.Rivers and the novelist Siegfried Sassoon, at Craiglockhart Hospital, during the First World War.

The third novel in the Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series—the inspiration for the Disney+ original series Shardlake!C. J . Sansom has garnered a wider audience and increased critical praise with each new novel published. His first book in the Matthew Shardlake series, Dissolution, was selected by P. D. James in The Wall Street Journal as one of her top five all-time favorite books. Now in Sovereign, Shardlake faces the most terrifying threat in the age of Tudor England: imprisonment in the Tower of London.Shardlake and his loyal assistant, Jack Barak, find themselves embroiled in royal intrigue when a plot against King Henry VIII is uncovered in York and a dangerous conspirator they've been charged with transporting to London is connected to the death of a local glazer.Awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger – the highest honour in British crime writing.

On an evening in 1846 engaged couple Meg O’Connor and Rory Quinn join in an exuberant moondance.  Observing is the parish priest, Father Brian O’Malley.  The moondance brings bittersweet memories of Siobhan, the long-dead love of his youth, with whom he still feels a spiritual connection.  Within days of the dance, the villagers of Kelegeen awake to find their potato crops destroyed by blight.  They’ve been through famine before.  But this is an Gorta Mór, a monster the likes of which Ireland has never seen.At first Meg and Rory devise ways to help provide for their families, Meg through her sewing, Rory with his wood carving.  But when tragedy and a costly mistake end those means of survival they turn to more dangerous ventures. Father O’Malley reluctantly teams up with an English doctor, Martin Parker, to alleviate Kelegeen’s suffering.When Meg learns of ships carrying Irish passengers to a new life in America she is determined to go and bring Rory and their families after her.  It will take all her strength and courage along with the help of her beloved priest and the English doctor to make the plan succeed.